[media-credit name=”Credit: ABCNews.com” align=”alignnone” width=”744″][/media-credit]
An Ivy League student was stabbed to death because of his love interest in a former schoolmate at the beginning of the year in Newport Beach, California.
According to the investigators of the murder case, the crime was committed by the love interest of the victim himself who is linked to Nazi groups.
Blaze Bernstein, a student at the University of Pennsylvania, was killed after he expressed his desire to get together with Samuel Woodward.
Shortly after the two of them met by chance, Bernstein talked about the pleasant encounter with a friend, saying the hookup between them might be possible and would be “legendary.”
For the time being it remains unclear how the two of them met exactly, but according to one of the investigators on the case, Craig Goldsmith, Woodward killed his victim because of his anti-gay beliefs.
The 21-year-old accused murderer was determined to be the main suspect in the trial after DNA analysis found a match between Bernstein’s blood and the bloodstains that were discovered on Woodward’s watch and a knife in his bedroom.
Additionally, a lot of homophobic and neo-Nazi materials were found on Woodward’s mobile phone.
The victim and his alleged murderer met at a park in January this year after the two of them exchanged their contacts on Snapchat earlier. It was then that Woodward stabbed Bernstein around 20 times in the area of the head and the neck with a knife.
As a result, Bernstein was reported missing on the 2nd of January until his body was discovered in the Lake Forest Park a week later.
Following the unfortunate discovery, Woodward was arrested and the investigation against him begun.
Woodward will stand trial and could face life in prison if he is convicted of first-degree murder and hate crime.
His lawyer says he has autism and may have struggled with his own sexuality
